Known gaps to fill after changes to my WordPress Contribution hours

My paid contribution hours to the WordPress project have gone to zero after this announcement and I only have a few weeks left until my second sabbatical starts on February 3rd. I’ll then return on May 5th. Until then, I want to document as much as I can things I’ve worked on that I’d love for folks to fill in and take over. Please also keep in mind the many core contributors who are still working on the project and, if you want to join them, please jump in. If you don’t want to, I understand and don’t consider this pressure to do so.

For any areas folks are interested in, I’ll be happy to jump on a call or share what I know in my personal time (non work time). Right now, I’m keeping this high level and general rather than going for a full documentation style approach. If the latter is helpful for any area, I can do it in the time I have remaining. If I forgot anything and remember later, expect this post to be updated. These are just the high level items that come to mind. Any item with a 🌟 means I’m extra keen to have someone take it on.

Last updated: Jan 23rd, 2024

🌟Source of Truth

Effort: high.
Impact: high for the collective.

I’ve published a “Source of Truth” document for each WordPress release, going back to WordPress 5.8 when I shared it more ad hoc and privately until I found my footing and felt confident in switching to a public first approach. Ultimately, the aim of the resource is to provide a run down of everything in a release, including visual assets, adoption approaches, technical examples, etc. It’s meant to reduce time for those folks who educate others about a release whether through writing official documentation for the project or creating a YouTube video. This document involves many seen and unseen contributors as I track down information from slack convos to trac comments to DMs with the folks who released a feature. With my sabbatical coming up and the change in hours, I am without folks to take this on and I still believe it remains a valuable resource for folks, including release squad members from docs to testing to marketing.

Update: wrote documentation for how to handle this work as a small crew plans to help here.

🌟 Compile the release roadmap post

Effort: medium.
Impact: high.

Since WordPress 6.2, I’ve written and compiled the release roadmaps. When starting from scratch, it’s hard but, when you have a few releases under your belt, you start to see the flow of features punted from X release but slated for Y and can plan accordingly. For this release, I’d start with the Gutenberg releases to pull out what’s already there, look at currently closed trac tickets for the 6.8 milestone, and run around the various teams (share this in the Core meeting!) to see what folks might be working on. Make sure to work in the open, share drafts as you go, and reach out to teams. Get some strong visuals too! You have to do more outreach to each team than you might think and potentially multiple times. Of note, previously, this got a bit easier to compile thanks to a change in how issues were structured in the Gutenberg repo but I’m not sure how relevant that’ll be this time around.

LGBTQ+Press Empowerment Grant

Effort: high.
Impact: medium (but high for individuals).

Last year, we pulled off the very first LGBTQ+Press Empowerment Grant and I’d love to see it happen again. This could be scaled back in some way or improved upon! The last edition was tied to the WordPress Mentorship Program and involved opening applications, selecting grantees, coordinating a few sessions to connect them to other LGBTQ+ contributors, and wrangling payment. I really wanted future iteration to be used as a beta test of sorts for a different kind of funding, like what was offered by the Open Collective. Michelle Frechette raised her hand to be a point of contact and ally here too.

Share weekly important items for Core & Accessibility meetings

Effort: low.
Impact: low/medium.

Over the last year or so (unclear how long), I’ve shared updates to both the Accessibility and Core meetings about Gutenberg updates. This has involved a weekly process of reviewing all incoming Gutenberg issues and PRs, pulling out anything important, and sharing them. Usually, I don’t change things too much between the two groups as there’s enough overlap but, if anything, I’ll add extra items to the accessibility crew as there are often distinct things they need to be aware of. The hardest piece is finding important PRs that are under discussion and relevant as some PRs can go on for days/weeks/months. Usually, over time, after subscribing to enough issues, you can get a sense of what to flag.

Share calls for testing on upcoming features

Effort: medium.
Impact: medium/high.

Various features are in progress within Core and the Gutenberg plugin. In particular, I had on my list to do calls for testing/calls for feedback more broadly on two items: In-line comments and exposing the style book for classic themes. I imagine more items will come up as we get closer to the release and usually the Test lead will coordinate a larger call for testing. This larger call for testing is usually based on an initial version of the source of truth from yours truly so there’s a bit of a chicken/egg situation here too.

One item I’m leaving out for now is to run user testing but, if you are so inclined, please run user testing! In particular, I’d love to see testing done on zoom out and write mode, both of which I’ve done rounds of.

Sharing Core Editor Improvement posts mainly on Make Core

Effort: medium.
Impact: medium.

I’ve been writing Core Editor Improvement posts for a few years now with the aim of sharing cohesive updates around areas of improvement to better communicate what’s being worked on and show value. This mainly involves pulling together a set of features or improvements for a general area of the experience, whether writing or site editing or designing. This includes needing to pull in design resources or creating my own assets to show the features. I try to include voice overs in any videos I do as that’s been requested in the past (I can’t and don’t always!). You will need access to post on Make Core. In some cases, I bring these posts to the wp.org/news site but I think it’s okay if that doesn’t proceed for now.

Continue the Uniting WordPress YouTubers space

Effort: medium.
Impact: medium/high.

One area I have loved digging into the most in the last year has been in the YouTuber space. There are so many important discussions to have there and I really think any passionate person can keep this going. I recommend continuing a combination of open discussion, sharing feedback, and learning sessions where folks can either learn from each other or learn about something going on in the project. Ultimately, whoever can take this on just needs to make the space what is most useful for those folks at the time, work out in the open, and be ready to navigate through strong opinions. Here’s the playlist of videos and here are my notes including from when I started the idea. I have both a list of YouTubers I add to calls and an ongoing group DM with only some of them that I can intro someone to.

As a bonus idea, I really want to have dedicated spaces at future flagship events that are dedicated to YouTubers where folks can come to both collaborate/record and brainstorm/hang out. In my mind, it’s two different dedicated rooms with one filled with high quality recording equipment and the other to edit, talk, etc. Putting that out there in case someone can beat me to it. If not, this is on my mind to do as I imagine it’s hard to travel with recording equipment, it would be cool to have “live” streams from events to build interest, and it’s the perfect cross collab chance that many YouTubers have long embraced as a format.

Facilitate hallway hangouts on important topics

Effort: low to medium depending.
Impact: medium.

I started Hallway Hangouts during COVID when I was doing developer relations wrangling but we couldn’t meet in person. Since then, they have spread with many other folks hosting them! Here are some more recent ones. This fall, I spent more time hosting the YouTuber space listed above over community events, partially because 2024 was such a grief filled year. Calls take more out of me when I need to mask. In general, these are meant to be casual and collaborative calls amongst mostly contributors. I could see these being valuable right now with those who are contributing to get on the same page and move forward together. I made this guide nearly five years ago and it still holds. As alway, work in the open, figure out what is valuable for the group to discuss, do lots of outreach, be ready to facilitate, and always recap.

P.S. I’m not going anywhere and I have a lot left in me to bring to the WordPress project. Consider this partially me winding down before my sabbatical as I always planned to do a post like this, just not for as many areas of work.